Saturday, October 2, 2010

Comic 800! Quite a milestone for Randall Munroe, and I congratulate him on making it this far. I don't think he should have, of course. But still, it's farther along that I would have guessed he could make it based on, I dunno, the quality of his comics.

Another thing that's lasted longer than I would have expected is this blog. I started it in late April of 2008, and clearly did not expect anyone to actually read it, let alone comment and form a tiny, hateful, wonderful little group. We've had about 520 posts on this blog, some of which have been thousands of words long, which is astounding. This is an especially fitting time for reflection, as I started this blog right around comic 400. That means that at this point, half of all xkcd comics have a coressponding xkcdsucks post. Well, technically I started with comic 409, so it's not half until comic 818. But you have to give me a nine comic not-giving-a-fuck margin of error.

In any case, I promised a big announcement, and despite my past history of vile lies, this time I was being serious: I'm going to be making a whole bunch of changes around here. I'm not quite going to stop xkcdsucks or get rid of it, but it's also not going to continue as it has been. Instead, I want to try a new website - a site about webcomics in general, though with the same critical-but-fair attitude I've developed here over the years.

I've been thinking about this for a while, and actually, Person #1 and Aloria helped me set up the url and wordpress structure, and I've posted a handful of things on it already (some of it was also crossposted here, like book reviews). I didn't tell anyone about it though; I figured that I could have it running in the background until I was ready to announce it.

So why am I doing this? There are a few reasons, of course. The idea of getting away from Blogger.com has been around for a while - people particularly hate the comment box, and given that that's how all of you interact with me and everyone else, it seems pretty important. Not important enough that I did anything about it, of course, but still: the idea was there.

When I first started blogging here, I was doing it out of a frustration I no longer feel. That's not to say xkcd has gotten better, of course - in fact, it's gotten worse. But some things have changed: When I started, it was because I felt like no one else seemed to realize that xkcd was getting so terrible. It was just frustrating to feel like I was the only one who "got it", which I know is a super pretentious thing to say, but it's how I felt. I was hoping that someone else online had come to the same conclusion, so naturally I googled "xkcd sucks." I didn't find much. So I decided it was up to me. I had some brief experience with blogger.com, so I set up an account and started posting.

I truly don't know what gave me the energy to keep going at first. But after a few weeks, a man named Jonathan Harford left some encouraging comments, and apparently, that was all I needed. The idea that someone not only agreed with me but that he wanted to talk about it, well, that was simply lovely. The summer of 2008 saw the first real rise in readership, and it's also when a lot of the regulars around here got involved. FUN FACT: You guys know rob? The guy who comments all the time and is good at arguing but bad at posting, and is rumored to weigh over 350 pounds? The one who is basically an ideological xkcd hater? He started out as a total xkcd fanboy! Here's the first comment he left on this blog, in its entirety:

Veritably cuddly.

Honestly, and I'm not saying this out of spite or anything, I don't think you're going to manage to convince anyone that XKCD sucks or is overrated through this blag. I also think you're probably analyzing it too much. I couldn't really tell you why the "in popular culture" one was funny, but I laughed at it. It's kind of an absurd notion. Like most humor, when you really analyze it, it fails to stand up.

Have you ever read a Wikipedia article on a joke? Any kind of joke, really. I, for one, have never found humor to be more boring than in the context of analysis.

And of course, There Are No New Ideas. I am of the opinion that people ought to be slapped every time they criticize something because it's been done before. Originality is for bad thrillers (and they still don't manage).

GUYS: HE EVEN USED THE WORD "BLAG." what a goddamned nerd.

Anyway - the audience grew slowly but steadily. Here, you can follow along: my google analytics from september 2008 (when I first started tracking) through today. The biggest spikes are based off prominent links and also one particularly terrible comic.

It's been very weird to go from 50-60 visits a day to the point where 2000 visits would be a bad day. Very weird indeed.

So here's what's different now: I'm not the only one who thinks xkcd sucks. There are you guys, certainly, and I love you all for it. But even elsewhere - it's far more common to hear people say that xkcd is getting a lot worse. I no longer feel like I'm doing anyone a favor by having this blog. That alone, though, wouldn't be enough to stop - I truly do enjoy this sort of thinking and this sort of writing, and the practice is certainly good even if no one is reading. And recently, that's dropped off too - the overarching problem with most recent xkcd comics is not that they are terrible but that they are boring. It's not fun to write about. A lot of the problems in the new comics are the exact same problems as in old comics, so to criticize them properly would be to merely repeat myself. That's not fun.

At the same time, I'm reading tons of other comics. I link to them when I can, but usually the amount of time I spend on xkcd crowds out the rest of the stuff. I want to spend more time reading new comics and writing reviews of those, or writing more book reviews, or interviews. And I want to have a few more voices represented, not just mine.

But all this I had decided long ago - the problem was, I still felt like xkcdsucks should continue too, and I didn't have time for both. So here's my compromise: "xkcdsucks" is now going to be a weekly feature of the new blog. Rather than feel the need to comment on every single xkcd no matter what, this will let me be more adaptable - if only one comic is worth commenting on that particular week, then that's all I'll do. I always say that Randall's problem (ONE of his problems) is that he forces himself to update constantly, regardless of quality. So I shouldn't do that myself.

Hey! I still haven't told you anything about the new site! And this is what I am super excited about, too. So! It's a wordpress blog, right now it's pretty basic visually but I hope to work on that in the comic weeks. If you want to help out that would be cool. I certainly want some nicer images around, and maybe some help with the general visual theme. My idea is that everything can be done through one blog, but that there would be links to only certain by certain features (like, "posts written by this guy" or "interviews," etc.) so it would feel a little more organized than just "all posts here, read in order." I have a few ideas for what to write about - actually a whole lot - so I'm pretty excited to get started. The URL is www.webcomics.me , so that's a pretty nice place for it. I don't have a name for it besides just calling it "webcomics.me" so if you think of a good name let me know. Actually if you think of anything at all let me know.

I know that there are probably a lot of you out there who are going to be disappointed about this decision, and there's nothing I can say to that besides the fact that I'm grateful you like my blog enough that you're mad it's stopping. If you only really like the negative stuff, you probably won't like the new blog as much as the old one. So I feel ok with the idea that many people won't follow me over to the new site. That's ok. I mean, I hope you do - but I understand that it might take another few years to get the audience there up to what it is here now. And that's assuming all goes well. Who knows what will happen! It's going to be fun.

As to some logistics: This site will stay up indefinetly, though I don't plan to update it. I'll include a link to webcomics.me prominently at the top, along with an explanation. But there's far too much content here to just get rid of it. I spent a while thinking about moving everything here over to the new wordpress blog, but I decided against it - they are going to be two different things. I have, however, posted all my book reviews on that site, and may go back and copy some other articles if I think they are relevant and were good enough. I imagine some of Rob's more general-interest articles will end up there as well. Aloria is going to help with some of the backend stuff, and Ves will be writing as well. Rob will probably join as well. And maybe some other folks! If you're interested in writing for it, you can send me an e-mail with some sample articles and maybe we can get that started. I'm particularly interested in some people who know more about art than I do.

So! Here we are. I'm eager to get started on the new site and I hope you join me there.

In closing, it's been a wacky ride for the last two and a half years. I don't want to get sentimental, given that I write a blog that just makes fun of a comic, but still: It's pretty cool that so many of you have spend so much time commenting on this site and being a part of this community. There were plenty of terrible commenters, but they tended to post once or twice and leave - those of you who stuck around, regardless of your opinions, have proven to be truly fun, intelligent, awesome people. I've had many great conversations with a lot of people, both privately by e-mail and publicly by way of the comments, and I have just been so consistently impressed with how interesting, passionate, and intelligent you all are.

Carl, you are a talentless hack. But I support your right to get swag out of it. At least everyone from the start acknowledges that you were a hack, and there are no Carl print-outs on doors at my work. If that ever changes, I will start a "Carl sucks cock" blog.

Oh, and congratulations Carl: "Xkcdsucks.blogspot.com is ranked #309,041 in the world". We didn't register before, and now that we do you are transplanting the colony! Well, good luck and I look forward to spamming your posts over there.

Words fail me (William Monty Hughes), but I shall not fail words. I muster the all-encompassing subtleties of my immense idiolect to express the emotion and opinion of the relevation on intelligent lifeforms, expression of these ideas. I deliberated on this and chose one word, one perfect word. All that was ever needed.

EXCELLENT.

Carl "Zgly" Wheeler, fools lapped when I said I would bring down this Devil's Smithy. I do not laugh now, for this was fated. They still laugh perhaps, in a way. Their internal strangers and self-loathing (of which there is much to loathe, I assure you) are giggling uproariously as their world collapses around them...

I brought this upon you scum and this euthanasia of self-deceit and mindless bureaucracy, all alone. Just me. That was all that was needed.And I am proud. But my work is not yet done. There is much still.

I would like to NOT thank the "Xkcd" "fans" upon this blag, who I now grok to be the alter-egos of a single moron defender of this blag (of which there are many.) This of course explains their continual anonymity, their repeated points and monotony. Or at least, I was the only True Fan. The one of any purpose.

The_Autodidact: So instead of acting on your personal convictions and opinions, you... Observed? Whilst I was making a legacy of myself, sewing the seeds of dissent and revealing these clowns for the fools they are by subtle social maneuvering, you watched?

...*

You are a joke and an utter cad. Never visit or speak of "Xkcd" ever again, you have committed sloth and I judge you now. May you haunt these poorly worded and churlish essays for a thousand days yet.

One thing I'd like to link here that I don't know if you know about is Dresden Codak's art blog: http://dresdencodak.tumblr.com/

He's an extremely talented webcomic artist and he has some great tips on the more artistic side of creating webcomics. Granted, that's not what you're gonna do, but it would probably be helpful to understand. I should mention though, that the kind of webcomic Dresden Codak does is so far removed from (and much better than) anything xkcd that it's hard to imagine them being on the same internet.

http://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=fungible&oldid=10570004 (under "quotations"; newest version at the time of writing)

Wonder if WP:Fancruft or something is supposed to be specific enough to cover that, if not, wonder how many more it'll take until a "Wikipedia:XKCD" page is made... ("Just the fact that a webcomic/.../[insert media here] that mentioned topic X happens to be your favorite does NOT make it a relevant reference!")

Kinda sad to see xkcdsucks go, even if you're still gonna touch on xkcd in the new blog. I probably won't read it as much though. I've never cared for any comic besides xkcd and SMBC (and really, there's not much to say about SMBC) so it probably won't hold too much interest for me.

So I guess maybe this means I'll move on, forget about xkcd and xkcdsucks, and stop spending my time on the internet hating a comic that's so well-liked. I mean, come on, I don't see MY comic anywhere! (And all the other lame "arguments" we get around here, blah blah blah...)

I support your decision. There's plenty of criticism and endorsement possible outside of the world of XKCD, and I think that we should proceed to a larger-based website, such as the one you have set up.

I also support the cessation of constant XKCD critique; it was getting dull and difficult to provide entertaining criticism to every single comic, so this makes sense.

Basically, behind you all the way!

Cheers,Defiant(long-time every-day reader [well, only came in through half-way through this blog's lifetime, but when I did, I lost 3 nights of sleep going through the archives], ~9-10 times commenter)

Wow... I've always thought that xkcdsucks would outlast xkcd, and that when xkcd ended we would all just stand around going, "What the heck do we do now?". I never conceived of the opposite case. I didn't even think that your special announcement would involve this. I congratulate you for taking the initiative to follow your ambitions.

Oh, and I totally agree with Leahcim, about this blog outlasting XKCD. In fact, the whole point of my last comment was the hope that you could remain around as an administrator of some sort, and the actual posting would be done by the community here. I would love to see this blog continue for as long as possible, and I'm glad it won't be at the expense of the quality of the posts.

The insight I've gained from your critical analysis has been extremely useful. I'm not joking when I say that I am now better at architectural criticism (I'm an architectural history master student) from reading your blog about a silly webcomic.

Lately, your posts have become repetitive, and I'm glad to see you moving on. I'm looking forward to a much broader range of criticism than that for which XKCD can provide material.

I've been reading for a long time, contributing sometimes (Bob Dole, was in the comic contest) and lately (last 2 months or so) I've only been coming to read the comments and not the reviews.

Why? For the exact same reasons you stated. They've become, much like xkcd itself, stale and boring. But it's not really through any fault of your own... it's hard to come up with interesting critiques on something that never changes, always makes the same mistakes and is just incredibly boring all around.

William Monty Hughes! In this the closing of an era, the collapse of a great war, I challenge you, sir, with your questionable 224 IQ, to a duel of pretentious vocabulary and high-minded oration. I, a man who hardly frequented this vitriolic den of scum and villainy, hereby challenge he who declares himself superior to the common fan. Your vain conception of an aristocracy of comic frequenters will be no more.

Names such as Rob and Carl mean nothing now. The matter must be settled; shall the "one true fan" reign supreme over the masses of those who dare to question, who have the courage and the fortitude to gaze upon Randall Munroe's vast landscape of ideas and say "No. It is not a perfect land. The terrain is rough, flawed, imbalanced and precarious. But this is a kingdom where glorious thoughts have flourished, and will continue to survive"?

No, I say. Never shall the specter of a tyrant's projection stand against the force of reason. Never again.

Rob, if you find enjoyment in commenting on Randall's work for a while longer, go ahead and do it. However, you should only if you're passionate about it, that's what drove this blog. At this point, I find myself skipping the post entirely, and reading through the comments. Hopefully you'd be able to change that.

So on the whole, I agree with Carl's decision. Randall's comics have become disgustingly stale, and it's the sole reason why the blog has come to mimic it. Randall isn't fresh, his ideas boring, and hardly ever enough to raise an eyebrow. The end of XKCDsucks, I think, foretells misfortune upon XKCD itself.

Anyway, good fight. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading this blog, and the people of different opinions and ideologies. For example, Rob and William Monty Hughes have been perhaps my favourite posters for a long time. I don't know why exactly I enjoy the writings of two people with seemingly opposite opinions, but it's refreshing for sure.

Will I be coming to the new website? Maybe. Be smart about how you run it, and it'll grow in popularity. I feel that you should have a few "staple comics" which give theme to the site. If the new site becomes "A collection of opinions on a diverse variety of online comics," well, it might not be as appealing. Hatred and vitriol powered this blog, along with a strong community. Find something to be passionate about, and it'll succeed.

I think Cuddlefish, I'll miss you the most. You're presence was the smile to my day, and the mere knowledge that there is still ignorance that needs correcting is a great sentiment to the growth of humanity.

Randall, you're so dead the vultures won't even peck at you anymore. This is I hope the greatest signal we can give you to. shape. up. your. damn. act. 15 minutes per update isn't going to cut it. Whether your comic inspires ideas, hatred, laughter, or thought is beside the point. As long as there's something pertinent to say about your comic, there will be someone to read it.

I think I just made myself unclear as possible in that last line. I see posts on the new site that never made it to this blog. I would have loved to talk about subnormality.(did you know rowntree has a small gig on cracked.com?) but no, he has to have it posted to a blog that no one knows about, does he expect us to comment on old threads? Nuts to that, my friends.

As a lover of XKCD, I'm fuckin' heartbroken. Where now shall I go to get all riled up about the inconsequential? 4Chan?

By the way, on your new blog: Will you have a specific QC Hater? Because -- for me -- reading that comic is like a hardcore heroin addiction: Perfectly wonderful in every way with absolutely no downside.

If someone proceeds with per-comic posts here or on the new site, I'd definitively like them to include previous comments on the comic they're reviewing - it has sometimes been done here already and I generally liked it.

Also you definitively need to include separate blogs for every webcomic that is regularly reviewed. (With feeds for each of these too.) Bonus points for catchy URL (webcomics.me/xkcd) and a proper insulting title for each of these. Such an implementation could then be used to proceed this blog on the new platform and with different or differing (blog-)posting slaves, but in a similar format.

Farewell, xkcdsucks! You were a bastion of all that is good and proper and xkcd-loathing on the internet, and even though webcomic criticism shall be reborn elsewhere, like a phoenix from the ashes, I will still hold a special place in my heart for the ugly Blogspot theme and godawful comment box that have been my constant companion.

Far be it from me to give a fuck about somebody who wasted so much time throwing shit at my church, but there really should be a prominent link to redirect sporadic visitors to the crappy new site. At least a mention in the first line of the foremost entry.

My captcha was popsycho. That would be so amazingly fortuitous if I did Captcha gags! But I don't so fuck you all.

You stupid cunt, the only way that could possibly not be a metaphor is if Carl really spends a lot of time throwing actual fecal matter at an actual church, and if he really did that to your church then what would be dumb about complaining about it?

What the hell is this?

Welcome. This is a website called XKCD SUCKS which is about the webcomic xkcd and why we think it sucks. My name is Carl and I used to write about it all the time, then I stopped because I went insane, and now other people write about it all the time. I forget their names. The posts still seem to be coming regularly, but many of the structural elements - like all the stuff in this lefthand pane - are a bit outdated. What can I say? Insane, etc.

I started this site because it had been clear to me for a while that xkcd is no longer a great webcomic (though it once was). Alas, many of its fans are too caught up in the faux-nerd culture that xkcd is a part of, and can't bring themselves to admit that the comic, at this point, is terrible. While I still like a new comic on occasion, I feel that more and more of them need the Iron Finger of Mockery knowingly pointed at them. This used to be called "XKCD: Overrated", but then it fell from just being overrated to being just horrible. Thus, xkcd sucks.

Here is a comic about me that Ann made. It is my favorite thing in the world.

Frequently Asked Questions

Divided into two convenient categories, based on whether you think this website

Rob's Rants

When he's not flipping a shit over prescriptivist and descriptivist uses of language, xkcdsucks' very own Rob likes writing long blocks of text about specific subjects. Here are some of his excellent refutations of common responses to this site. Think of them as a sort of in-depth FAQ, for people inclined to disagree with this site.